August 20, 2001

GO FOR IT, KOSTUNICA!Yugoslavia's
revolution within the revolution

The
revolution that overthrew Yugoslav socialism, led by Vojislav Kostunica, is
far from over: having gotten rid of Slobodan Milosevic, and freed the country
from the sclerotic grasp of the Serbian Socialist Party, Kostunica became
the President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) only to find yet
another obstacle in his path: Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic. US sock
puppet and Yugo-yuppie extraordinaire, Djindjic is an opportunist in
the Machiavellian mode who bitterly opposes the independent foreign policy
stance taken by the President and his party. It was Djindjic, you remember,
who handed over poor old Slobo to The Hague, in exchange for something less
than thirty pieces of silver  a move that outraged Kostunica, and drew
the line of demarcation between these two increasingly bitter rivals.

ROLEX
VS. TIMEX

Not
that anyone could have failed to see the contrast before. Two more disparate
men could not possibly be imagined. As
one wag put it, "Kostunica drives a beat-up Yugo, he has three ties and
two suits, a $50 watch and a 13-cent pen. Djindjic's pen is worth more than
Kostunica's car."

A
HERO TO HIS PEOPLE

On
the one hand, we have President Kostunica, the principled professor in rumpled
suits who opposed both NATO and Slobo with equal vigor. In his victory Kostunica
became the very symbol of what I call
"market nationalism," a hero to his people and an inspiration
to the small nations of the Balkans  proof that it was possible to defy
the US, after all, and still survive politically, and physically.

FROM
COMMIE TO YUPPIE

Certainly
Djindjic has thrived on crisis. He took advantage of the crisis of his own
country  the NATO attack  to openly meet with the enemy while
skulking about in Montenegro. A skilled seeker after the main chance, the
Serbian Prime Minster, in the words of one analyst, "realized that he couldn't
win an election himself, so he found another way  through Kostunica,
through DOS  to run the country." He is also the richest politician
in the country, according
to a very interesting article in the Chicago Tribune, as well as
arguably the most powerful  in spite of his unpopularity
with voters  and therein lies the root of the developing revolution
within the revolution....

CRIME
AND GOVERNMENT

Ever
since the victory of the DOS, and the expulsion of Milosevic from the circle
of power, Djindjic has worked hard to undermine and ultimately sideline Kostunica
 by far the most popular politician in the former Yugoslavia 
and now, finally, Kostunica
has struck back. The first shot of the Yugoslav revolution's second phase
was fired when Kostunica's Democratic
Party of Serbia (DSS) withdrew from the government coalition, known as
DOS, a move that could mean new elections in Serbia  and is likely to
mean a massive defeat for Djindjic. What
is especially interesting is the DSS's stated reason for the split:

"Deeply
convinced that organized crime and corruption are the most dangerous enemies
of democratic changes in our country and the major obstacles to its full integration
into the world of well-organized and law-abiding states, the DSS Presidency
warns that not a single chain of organized crime has been broken, nor have
its leaders been punished, and that, of a series of murders that have repeatedly
shocked the public, not a single one has been solved. Quite the contrary,
crime has assumed dramatic proportions, new killings and new abductions have
taken place. . . . Consequently, the right question is if organized crime
enjoys the protection and support of certain segments of the authorities,
or the Serbian government is incapable of dealing with it."

GANGSTAS

This
is an unmistakable reference to the
murder of Momir Gavrilovic, the former deputy chief of the State Intelligence
Service in Belgrade. Gavrilovic's violent death was particularly untimely,
having occurred right after a meeting with Kostunica and his cabinet, where,
according to the respected daily newspaper Blic, he delivered evidence
of collusion between the Serbian mafia and the Serbian state. The
whole story is typically Balkan in its murky darkness, involving a mysterious
"Surcin group" of gangsters who supposedly control the smuggling trade, a
series of murders, and Djindjic's links to a fair number of mobsters, with
whom he reportedly enjoys a certain rapport.

THE
'NEW' SERBIA

This
is not the first time Djindjic has been implicated in his relations with criminal
elements. The Chicago Tribune piece  little noticed, for some
reason  revealed to American readers that the man who is supposed to
symbolize the "new Serbia," as opposed to the old nationalist Serbia of Kostunica,
once "bragged about how, in the days leading up to Milosevic's ouster, three
of Belgrade's most prominent crime lords called him and pledged their neutrality
in the expected showdown between police and street protesters." The Tribune
cites Alexander Tijanic, a former advisor to Djindjic, as saying: "He's admitting
that gang members can reach him on the phone every day. Does he owe them favors?
How can he fight corruption when he's openly admitting he's friendly with
mob guys?"

READY,
AIM ...

How
indeed. Kostunica has answered this question unequivocally by declaring war
on corruption  and, by implication, on Djindjic. In a blistering statement
days after the Blic revelations, Kostunica put the Serbian Prime Minister
squarely in his sights:

"It
is correct that the late Gavrilovic was in my cabinet on Friday morning and
that he spoke with my advisors. Momir Gavrilovic came to my office, not for
the first time, because was concerned about the level of criminalization in
society. He wished to warn about the penetration of organized crime in economic
life, about the strength and vastness of the activities of individual members
of the group, and about that which he as a police officer he believed to be
the insufficient responsibility and mistakes by the government and the appropriate
organs. He spoke of corruption. We cannot close our eyes to crime nor can
we attribute this to the legacy of the former government. The number of unresolved
murders and kidnappings has not decreased. On the contrary, there are now
more cases than ever. This country has to stop that, if it wants to survive."

WHEN
WORLDS COLLIDE

An
article in the Croatian newspaper Nacional ended its account of the
Gavrilovic affair with this thought:

"Even
though it is believed that Kostunica is the real successor of Slobodan Milosevic,
first and foremost due to his pronounced nationalism, today it is obvious
the Djindjic, who appears much more European, is certainly more inclined to
Milosevic's style of ruling, in uniting the Mafia with politics and erasing
the boundaries between those two worlds."

FOLLOW
THE MONEY

While
this may seem baffling to those who equate the West with the rule of law,
when you think about it the Djindjic-mafioso connection is entirely consistent
with his links to another kind of Mafia  NATO and the US government.
During the election campaign that toppled Slobo, the US spoon-fed the Djindjic
faction of the Serbian opposition with millions of dollars. Naturally, Kostunica's
party wouldn't touch a dime of it  but Djindjic and his allies, who
met openly with US officials while their country was being bombed by the US,
were not so fastidious. Millions in US taxpayer dollars were given to Djindjic
and his shady friends to do pretty much as they pleased. Suitcases of cash
were passed around quite freely, just as in any money-laundering scheme, to
all sorts of dubious characters, all in the name of spreading American-style
"democracy" to the benighted Balkans. Will there be a congressional investigation
that poses the question: where did all that money go? As the motto of my favorite newspaper
puts it: inquiring minds want to know.

SEND
IN THE CLONES

The
Republicans in congress, who (in general) opposed the Kosovo war, had better
wake up, for here is a chance for them to make political hay. Corruption,
collusion, and Mafia-style
tackiness  where have we seen all this before? Remember, the Kosovo
war was Clinton's war, and it was under the Clintonian regime that
the tragic course of American policy in the Balkans was followed through to
the bloody end. The Arkansas Mafia was the sleaziest gang to take over Washington
since the administration of Ulysses S. Grant, so rife with inside deals, payoffs,
and influence-peddling scandals that the Monica Lewinsky affair was only a
thin glaze of bittersweet icing on a cake filled with corruption. Slickness,
arrogance, brazen opportunism: these themes, which defined the Clinton administration,
pretty much nail down Djindjic and his gang. "Uniting the Mafia with politics
and erasing the boundaries between two worlds"  a clearer conception
of the Clinton years would be hard to find. So it is not so surprising that
the "pro-Western" elements in Serbia should turn out to be a criminal gang:
they are, after all, Clintonian clones.

IT'S
BEEN FUN

I
must admit to a moment of extreme trepidation before deciding on the subject
of this column. I am, after all, soon to be traveling to the former Yugoslavia,
and weighing in on this sensitive subject is hardly the way to ingratiate
myself with the Serbian authorities. As for writing about the Serbian Mafia,
it is not exactly a safe subject for a traveler to the region. This is the
first  and only  time I, as a writer, have ever found any comfort
in my own obscurity. Why would anyone bother going after little old me?
If, however, modesty blinds me to my awful fate, then you may soon read about
yet another mysterious assassination in the streets of Belgrade (or perhaps
the mountains of Montenegro). Yet another execution carried out right in broad
daylight, just like the killing of Momir Gavrivolic  only, this time,
the victim will be some formerly obscure American journalist. In that case,
let me leave my readers with some last words, a kind of credo that sums up
my attitude toward mortality as well as this column and life in general: it
was fun while it lasted!

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